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While it was meant as a joke on the 95-5 thread, I would like to take this opportunity to mention why semapi or kohai of questionable hygiene or smelling of smoke (legal or otherwise) or strong perfume may not get partners. This is not prejudice, it is self-protection.

Those things literally make many sick, and anyone who shows up on the mat needing to wash their gi/hakam/other body parts is showing massive disrespect to their classmates. The same can be said for those I see sneeze into their hand and then grab my wrist, or those to whom I've pointed out bleeding wounds and they say 'oh, it's not that bad' and refuse to bandage it. For goodness sake, excuse yourself, go wash your hands, cover the wound, whatever.

As we leave summer and approach the cold and flu season, I would like to remind one and all to wash their hands/gis. And perhaps consider watching rather than training if ill.

I second what Colleen has said! The sneezing thing really bugs me, and this is something to be especially aware of during children's classes. The first aid kit I keep in the dojo for emergencies is stocked with alcohol pads (work great for sneezy hands) and starting tomorrow will contain a new bottle of water-less hand cleanser. Bleeding wounds are an even more serious matter, no matter how small they may appear. OK, done ranting. Happy Training!

I thought I'd mention that we often rub our feet during warm ups and since I live in a beach town where sandals and thongs are very popular, I always appreciate those who take extra care to clean their feet before getting on the mat.

Hey, I'm happy just for hand (and if needed, foot) washing before class...I'm not touching them after class, and besides, I usually walk the five bloocks to my house after class for a shower (being the one who cleans the bathrooms in the dojo, I know which shower I prefer...

Well, not everyone is as fortunate to have their home and dojo close to one another. For those less fortunate (like me) I can recommend bath-slippers and 2 plastic bags (to keep your cloths, towels, etc. dry). That has served me well in some realy gross showers.
What drives me up the walls however, is the fact that although people tend to put bandages on there bleeding toe, finger whatever, they 'forget' to clean the dojo-mat they have been bleeding on. Very 'nice' if you have to do ukemi there afterwards.

Also nice if you have a shower, the majority of dojo's I've been to do not,,,but in any case, it is much more important to be clean before you will be touching others than after you are done (with the exception of washing your hands, which should be done right after class). Again, I am not trying to dictate people's personal attitude toward showers, but show what is important to reduce the spread of illness.

Along those lines, cleaning up spilled blood is vital. It is disrespectful if students do not clean the dojo, but it can be a very serious health risk if spilled blood is ignored, and I would consider a sensei/dojo that allowed an attitude like that to be flirting with liability.

Realy? I've never been to a dojo that has no showers, some were primitive but still. And of course people should be 'clean' before stepping on the mat. We practise usualy very intense and believe me, a shower afterwards is not a luxury, nor is washing your gi after training.
The spilled blood thing is a problem though, the dojo we use is a multipurpose one if I may say so. It is used for karate, judo, kobudo, self-defense, aikido and sometimes fitness, streetdance or whatever the current health/fitness hype is. We have classes late at night so we cannot control what happens in the classes before us. According to the university, which owns the dojo, it is cleaned every morning and twice a week treated with anti-sceptic fluid. I don't believe that they realy do that, it is cleaned maybe once or twice a week and the fluid is used maybe once in a month or so. The only thing we can do is tell our teacher, subsequently he tells the care-taker and he gives the message to the cleaners. Our teacher complains regularly, but when it was realy bad, so did we, the student. Next thing we know, the care-takers boss tells my teacher that his students should not complain to the care-taker, since our teacher is the contact and everything has to go through him. So we are back at complaining to our own teacher about something he can do very little about himself. By the way, classes are scheduled pretty tight and we do not have the opportunity, nor means, to clean the dojo before aikido class.
Liability is not a realy big issue in the Netherlands and sofar I haven't heard of anyone contracting an illness, except athelete's foot but I don't think there is a dojo in the world that has no problems with that 'illness'. We try best we can with our own limitted means and at least to have our own fellow students become conscious of the issues and problems discussed here sofar.

Speaking of which, is it true that we shouldn't wash our obi? Apparently, since it's directly tied around the hara, it represents the center of our ki, so washing it would be like washing off our own energy.
Hehehe, does this mean that yudansha actually never 'recieved' their black belt, but it was their white one that turned black after consistent...well, contact with the tatami?
Just a silly thought...

It may have seemed like a silly thought, but I have actually heard from a sort-of reliable source that that is exactly where the black-belt tradition came from. Supposedly in the good old days people would train at whatever martial art there was in the good old days, outdoors, and would never wash their obi, which would lead to a color progression like you still see in some childrens' classes: white, yellow, orange, brown, and finally black (I can't explain blue or purple). So you would know a real experienced person by how dark his belt had become.

BTW I washed my white belt for years and was never reprimanded for it.

Well, those of you observing the no-washing-the-obi tradition, please wash your hands after tieing it

One way we coped with the 'shared' room at my university club was the understanding that the first student into the room would wash the mat (wrestling type, would be more difficult with canvas but I assume your 'shared' mat is also synthetic). S/he would spray the mat and a large bath towel with disinfectant, put the towel over the end of a push broom, and starting in one corner cross back and forth across the mat. This goes fairly quickly, dried quickly, and also picked up a fair amount of dirt that before was getting on our gis/hakamas.

In the US, a fair number of dojos exist in 'strip malls' or church halls/basements. I've never seen one without a sink, but showers are often not part of the building--makes you really appreciate it when you find a dojo with showers!

I wonder what would happen if any of you came to our dojo.... Stinky...Dirty..Bloody..
I dont think I know when the last time any of us cleaned our hakamas although we do occasionally wipe the tatami.
come on! youll love it!
Mick

Ouch. That's harsh. My sensei is all about cleanliness. Instead of sweeping, he makes us scrub the mat... with toothbrushes (Sensei, if you're reading this, it's just a joke, please don't make me clean the mat with a toothbrush! )